Editing Idiot (section)

==Etymology==
The word "idiot" ultimately comes from the [[Ancient Greek language|Greek]] noun {{lang|grc|[[wikt:ἰδιώτης|ἰδιώτης]]}} ''idiōtēs'' 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a [[private citizen]]' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective {{lang|grc|ἴδιος}} ''idios'' 'personal' (not public, not shared).<ref>J. Diggle, ed., ''The Cambridge Greek Lexicon'', 2021, {{isbn|9780521826808}}, ''s.v.'', p. 702</ref><ref name="lsj">Liddell-Scott-Jones ''[[A Greek–English Lexicon]]'', ''s.v.'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Di%29diw%2Fths {{lang|grc|ἰδιώτης}}] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Di%29%2Fdios {{lang|grc|ἴδιος}}].</ref> In [[Latin]], ''idiota'' was borrowed in the meaning 'uneducated', 'ignorant', 'common',<ref>''[[A Latin Dictionary]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Didiota ''s.v.'']</ref> and in [[Late Latin]] came to mean 'crude, illiterate, ignorant'.<ref>du Cange, ''[[Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis]]'', ''[http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/idiota?clear=1 s.v.]''</ref> In [[French language|French]], it kept the meaning of 'illiterate', 'ignorant', and added the meaning 'stupid' in the 13th century.<ref>''[[Trésor de la langue française informatisé]]'', ''s.v.''</ref> In English, it added the meaning 'mentally deficient' in the 14th century.<ref name="oed"/>

Many political commentators, starting as early as 1856, have interpreted the word "idiot" as reflecting the Ancient Athenians' attitudes to civic participation and private life, combining the ancient meaning of 'private citizen' with the modern meaning 'fool' to conclude that the Greeks used the word to say that it is selfish and foolish not to participate in public life.<ref>
a. R.L. Gibson (Louisiana), "Notes of European Travel--France", ''De Bow's Review'' '''21''' (3rd series):1:375-405 (1856), [https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=8ikKAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA389 p. 389]
<br />b. ''The Sanitary Era'' '''6''':117:12 (October 1892), New York, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GA-3Wt1T1ZcC&pg=PA210 p. 210]
<br />c. Bouck White, ''The Free City: A Book of Neighborhood'', 1919, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-mtJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA53 p. 53]
<br />d. John Robertson Macarthur, ''Ancient Greece in Modern America'', 1943, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-oIJAQAAIAAJ&q=(idiot%7Cidiotic%7Cidiocy)+(athenian+%7C+greek)+(democracy+%7C+participating+%7C+voting) p. 195]
<br />e. {{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/opinion/trump-and-the-true-meaning-of-idiot.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/opinion/trump-and-the-true-meaning-of-idiot.html |archive-date=2022-01-03 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Trump and the True Meaning of 'Idiot'|last=Anthamatten|first=Eric|date=2017-06-12|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-06-26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}
<br />f. {{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=Walter C. |title=Teaching against Idiocy |journal=Phi Delta Kappan |date=January 1, 2005 |volume=86 |issue=5 |pages=344–351 |doi=10.1177/003172170508600504 |s2cid=144893136 |language=en}}
</ref> But this is not how the Greeks used the word.

It is certainly true that the Greeks valued civic participation and criticized non-participation. [[Thucydides]] quotes [[Pericles' Funeral Oration]] as saying: "[we] regard... him who takes no part in these [public] duties not as unambitious but as useless" ({{langx|grc|τόν τε μηδὲν τῶνδε μετέχοντα οὐκ ἀπράγμονα, ἀλλ᾽ ἀχρεῖον νομίζομεν}}).<ref>Thucydides, ''[[The Peloponnesian War]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Thuc.+2.40&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0199 Thuc. 2.40]</ref> However, neither he nor any other ancient author uses the word "idiot" to describe non-participants, or in a derogatory sense; its most common use was simply a private citizen or amateur as opposed to a government official, professional, or expert.<ref>Matthew Landauer, "The ''Idiōtēs'' and the Tyrant: Two Faces of Unaccountability in Democratic Athens", ''Political Theory'' '''42''':2:139-166 (April 2014), {{JSTOR|24571390}}, p. 145</ref> The derogatory sense came centuries later, and was unrelated to the political meaning.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sparkes |first1=A. W. |title=Idiots, ancient and modern |journal=Australian Journal of Political Science |date=1988 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=101–102 |doi=10.1080/00323268808402051}}</ref><ref name="lsj"/><ref name="oed">''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', [http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/91049 ''s.v.'']</ref>